Belle's Memories Return
by thewordgirl
Summary: This is just a little one-shot about how I think the scene where Belle regains her memories in episode 2x22 should have gone.


Rumplestiltskin could feel it. The air was growing thinner, the sky was darkening. The world was coming to an end.

Bae was dead. Three hundreds years of searching, of hoping for the chance to make things right between him and his son, had all been for nothing.

He had failed.

He wished he could say he still had Belle, but that wasn't true either. Belle was lost forever, doomed to die as someone she was not.

He wished for many things. But now it seemed that the only wish of his that would be granted would be his wish to die.

Death didn't frighten him as he had thought it would. In fact, he welcomed death with open arms, after all, he had nothing left to live for now.

"To the end of the world." Rumplestiltskin said grimly as he poured a shot of whiskey into a glass, passing it into the hands of his lost love, the one he once knew as Belle, but now knew as Lacey.

"Come on, it'll help numb it," he said as he stared into her face, deep brown eyes meeting sparkling blue.

"I'll uh, I'll drink to that." Lacey replied.

Reaching for the glass, she knocked it over unexpectedly. The acidic liquid pouring out onto the table in a sticky and wet mess.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Lacey said apologetically as she searched for something to clean it up.

Noticing an old rag on the table behind her, she reached for it and began to wipe up the alcohol.

"Here, I got it. I got it," she said.

"Stop, stop! Put that back!" Rumplestiltskin cried desperately.

"It's just an old rag," Lacey protested, looking at him in confusion.

"It belonged to someone very important! You wouldn't understand!" Rumplestiltskin snapped, grabbing the shawl that had once belonged to his lost son out of her hands.

"I said I'm sorry." Lacey said meekly and apologetically.

Looking deep into her eyes, Rumplestiltskin immediately regretted his harsh words. It wasn't her fault. She didn't know about Baelfire. She didn't know about the shawl…she didn't know anything about his past. Those memories had belonged to Belle.

But Belle was gone.

Staring at Lacey closely, Rumplestiltskin realized that it didn't matter that she was not the same woman he had loved for so many years. It didn't matter that she dressed in a fashion that would have made Belle turn crimson.

She was still his True Love.

She was still a part of who Belle had once been, and deep down inside, Belle was a part of her.

He'd loved her as Belle, and he still loved her as Lacey.

They were one in the same.

They were both.

"I'm sorry." Rumplestiltskin said earnestly. "Let's not fight."

Reaching towards her, he wrapped his arms around her waist and tilted his head downward; his lips meeting hers in a deep and loving kiss.

* * *

From the moment his lips met hers, Lacey's vision grew fuzzy. Her entire head began swimming with images that she didn't recognize, and yet, they seemed all too familiar.

"What's happening?" Lacey asked in confusion, her head pounding and her heart beating faster and faster as she spoke.

His own heart beginning to pound as well, Rumplestiltskin ran his fingers lovingly through her hair.

It couldn't be…could he have broken the curse? He knew that he loved her but…but was it possible that she loved him in return? He had never dared to hope that such an outcome was possible. It was still unbelievable to him that Belle had ever fallen in love with him, he hadn't ever expected that someone else might be capable of doing the same thing….

Eager and desperate to find out if it _was _possible, Rumplestiltskin said. "Kiss me again! It's working!" His words echoing those of the woman who had nearly broken his _own _curse 28 years ago.

"What is?" Lacey asked drowsily, her confusion clouding her words.

Deciding immediately that actions spoke louder than words, Rumplestiltskin kissed her again, putting as much of his heart and his soul into it as humanly possible.

When they parted again, it was not the blue eyes of Lacey staring back at him, but the eyes of the woman he'd loved for so long.

Belle.


End file.
